Friday, 22 May 2015

Extremism on TV?

Sometimes it's just about context. If Louis Theroux or Michael Crick interviewed a loony who advocated that homosexuals be identified and flung from high buildings, the barely disguised mockery and careful editing would leave the viewer in no doubt that the extremist was a pathetic specimen worthy only of derision and taunts. If the same loony were given a serious platform on 'Newsnight' to explain that the sanction was prescribed in Leviticus, in the bible that sits in every church in Britain, and invited to explain the need for a change in the law to allow bible-courts to execute homosexuals, if I had the slightest liking for show-tunes or interior design magazines I'd be very afraid. There is no doubt in my mind that the foul and loathsome Islamist Anjem Choudary should never have been given a platform on Newsnight. That it happened was a gross error of BBC judgement that should have seen high-level sackings. But to allow it to lead to the Home Office interfering in programme making? I don't think so. Sanctions exist already. OFCOM can withdraw or suspend a broadcaster's licence if the rules are breached - and a new OFCOM with teeth ordering BBC2 to stop broadcasting for 48 hours as a punishment sounds OK to me.

3 comments:

Anjem Choudary is surely a stooge of our secret services. Better to keep him visible so the other rogues can be identified, perhaps? Though that is surely only one of many ways our taxes pay for him. We keep so many of these pets these days. I would prefer to put little Anjem in the barn with a fork so he could contribute in some small way to the public good.